Int’l Hazardous Waste Plan ‘Ensures’ Sound Shipping Procedures

The EPA announced a plan this week to strengthen regulations governing the international shipment of hazardous waste by and between the U.S. and foreign countries.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an international consortium comprising 30 member nations including the U.S., assists governments with the economic, social and governance challenges of a globalized economy. The increased regulations are put in place to ensure hazardous waste shipments between the U.S. and OECD member countries are made in an environmentally sound manner.

Ensuring hazardous waste is properly managed is a top priority, ensuring that contamination from substances such as lead, arsenic and mercury are not allowed into the environment. Photo: Flickr/willandbeyond

The new measures deal with the transboundary shipments of hazardous waste between all OECD member countries, export shipments of spent lead-acid batteries (SLABs) and import and domestic shipments of hazardous waste.

Hazardous waste is a touchy subject in the world of waste, with every country using and contributing to its existence, but with no countries wanting it in their backyard.

In recent years, many violations to existing hazardous waste regulations have been brought into the spotlight, with developing nations the usual recipients of the waste.

This news comes on the heels of another EPA announcement citing a plan to overturn a rule allowing the unregulated burning of hazardous waste.

The Emissions Comparable Fuel (ECF) rule took affect in January 2009, allowing industries to burn off fuel that would otherwise be regulated as hazardous waste, but that generates emissions comparable to fuel oil. The rule had come under scrutiny for allowing waste that should be treated as hazardous to bypass the system.

The EPA expects the new rule to be published in the Federal Register in January.